What some called a “prank” could have ended a young man’s life.

Seventeen-year-old Carter Mannon had lived with a severe peanut allergy since he was a baby. His parents taught him to be careful, and his school knew how dangerous exposure could be. But that didn’t stop a few teammates on his Texas high school football team from taking it too far.

“They asked him if it could kill him,” his mother Shawna told People. “He said, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ The next day, they filled his locker — his jersey, even his cleats — with peanuts.” Within minutes, hives broke out across his arm. Carter’s life was once again hanging by a thread.

The students responsible were briefly benched, but Shawna says her son faced more cruelty afterward — taunts in the hallway, even a peanut butter bar slipped into his backpack. When she took the matter to the school board, officials ruled it wasn’t legally “bullying.”

Feeling unsafe, Carter changed schools. “It broke him,” his mother said. “They knew what it could do — and they still did it.”

Sometimes, the greatest danger a child faces isn’t from the allergy itself — but from the cruelty of those who refuse to take it seriously.